


Never Let It Go

by Calacious



Series: Comfort in November and December 2020 [30]
Category: Ookiku Furikabutte | Big Windup!
Genre: Anxiety, Comfortember 2020, Episode Tag, First Kiss, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-11
Updated: 2020-12-11
Packaged: 2021-03-10 19:48:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 822
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28012680
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Calacious/pseuds/Calacious
Summary: Abe wants to capture that feeling (of butterflies in his stomach, and tingling lips) again, and never let it go.
Relationships: Abe Takaya/Mihashi Ren
Series: Comfort in November and December 2020 [30]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1996825
Comments: 8
Kudos: 11
Collections: Comfortember 2020





	Never Let It Go

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the comfortember prompt: anxiety

Mihashi is crying again, and Abe wishes he could ease some of the pitcher’s anxiety. The other boy can’t sleep, and he barely eats. He’d thought the boy was arrogant, like other pitchers (like the pitcher who preceded him), but he can see now that he was wrong about that, and he doesn’t know how to get Mihashi to have some confidence in himself.

“I believe in you,” he says, willing the other boy to believe in himself. To see that he’s not whatever his old teammates had told him he was.

He can feel the calluses on Mihashi’s fingers, and it’s different touching a boy’s hand than it is touching a girl’s, but it’s not bad. There’s something familiar and...good...about holding onto another boy’s hand. It stirs up an odd feeling in the pit of his stomach, but he dismisses it in favor of trying to make a breakthrough with Mihashi.

“You’re a good pitcher,” he tries, because Mihashi is a good pitcher, it’s just that his anxiety, and being torn down by his old teammates has made him think that he’s not. “I believe in you,” he repeats.

Mihashi gasps, and shakes his head. His hand is cold and trembling, and Abe takes a deep breath, because he wants to make Mihashi feel better, to know that he’s not alone.

“I like you,” he says, and his heart throbs a little at the admission. 

His stomach flutters, and he wonders if this is what it’s like to have butterflies in your stomach, and then he feels like he’s been punched in the stomach when he realizes what butterflies in one’s stomach means. But, he can’t like Mihashi in that way, can he? 

They’ve only just met, and just minutes before he was thinking that Mihashi was an arrogant prick, not unlike any other pitcher that Abe has had the displeasure of working with. When Momoe had suggested that he do this to Mihashi, had she known that this was going to happen? Had she known about the calluses, and the butterflies, and the way that Abe’s heart would throb?

Mihashi’s hand is warming, and the trembling stops. He’s staring at Abe, searching the catcher’s face, perhaps for the truth of his words, and then he smiles, and Abe’s heart beats so loudly in his chest that he’s certain the other boy can hear it.

“Really?” Mihashi asks.

“Really,” Abe says. 

Mihashi blushes, and there are stars in the boy’s eyes as he says, “I like you, too.”

Abe has no idea if the other boy means it in the general sense, like Abe had started out saying, or if Mihashi’s heart is doing that double-time somersaulting in his chest, like it’s doing in Abe’s. It’s dizzying, and Abe’s mouth is going dry, and he thinks that maybe he should let go of Mihashi’s hand, but part of him doesn’t want to do that. Part of him wants to keep holding Mihashi’s hand forever, and that thought is what causes Abe to release the other boy’s hand, because they have a game to play, and there isn’t time for feelings like this right now.

“Thank you,” Mihashi says, and his smile makes the butterflies in Abe’s stomach increase their fluttering.

“Thank you for believing in me,” Mihashi says, and he throws himself at Abe who has no other choice but to catch him (he is a catcher after all).

There’s no denying the way that his heart throbs, or the way that his body reacts to having Mihashi in his arms, and the kiss, while it is short and simple, leaves Abe wanting more. Mihashi’s blush, and the way that he ducks his head, and licks his lips is more of a turn on than it should be, and Abe forces himself to squeeze Mihashi, and then release him. 

There’s a game to play, and if this kiss -- a brief brushing of lips across lips -- is going to build to something more, then it will have to wait until after the game. It’s both equal parts terrifying and exciting. Abe can’t wait to see how it all turns out, how the big game (even if it is just a practice game, it is a game where Mihashi’s confidence will be built) will turn out for the both of them.

“Let’s play ball,” Abe says.

Mihashi gives him a determined look, and nods. “Let’s play.”

Mihashi’s confidence isn’t at one hundred percent just yet, but Abe is determined to get it there. And if stolen kisses, holding hands, and telling Mihashi that he’s a good pitcher, and then helping him to beat the team that beat him down is the way to go about it, Abe’s game for that, because the feel (though their lips had barely touched) of Mihashi’s lips still lingers on his own, tingling, and Abe wants to capture that feeling again and never let it go.


End file.
